Kiev regime orders crackdown as US steps up threats against Moscow

Click here to access article by Bill Van Auken from World Socialist Web Site.

Van Auken reports on the latest moves by the Empire's coup-installed regime in Ukraine to continue pursuing their aggressive designs despite any agreements.

...the Ukrainian regime’s foreign minister joined his counterparts from the US, Russia and the European Union in drafting an agreement in Geneva to halt all violence and de-escalate tensions by disarming illegal groups, ending occupations of public buildings and spaces, freeing political prisoners and initiating a dialogue between the regions.

Shortly afterwards, the regime in Kiev added that it was observing an “Easter truce.” It was during this supposed truce that a column of four cars carrying Right Sector gunmen attacked a roadblock on the outskirts of Slovyansk on Easter Sunday, killing three local men.

Then Alex Lantier from the same website reports on the discovery of deliberate photo tricks used by the NY Times to promote the Empire's project in Ukraine. 

Dollar dying; multi-polar world in offing

Click here to access article by William Engdahl from PressTV (Iran).

Engdahl is a brilliant geopolitical analyst, but fails to understand the nature of capitalism. He, like many other Empire critics, is placing his hopes on the rise of a multi-polar capitalist world. In this essay he examines what he regards as stupid strategies of Empire agents to preserve their dominant position in the world. 

Washington’s decision to go for the military coup in Ukraine...opened the door for a genuine multi-polar world where peaceful cooperation replaced military threats and sole Superpower domination.

I think his analysis is likely correct. But to see a multi-polar capitalist world as a desirable alternative is also stupid. The system of capitalism creates societies where social injustice is a natural consequence, and people who do well in it are logically sociopaths--people without any social justice scruples or who are reluctant to engage in wars to acquire wealth and power. We've had multi-polar capitalist worlds before now--in fact, the world has always been a multi-polar capitalist world from the advent of capitalism until the conclusion of WWII when the US led Empire has attained almost total dominance. So, was there peace before 1945?

Pieces of Madrid

Click here if you wish to access the original posting on Global Uprisings. 

The first half of the video portrays typical street battles by the people against the security forces of the ruling class. But what I think is a much more important part of the video starts at 9:00m. Although not as photogenic as the street battles, they show people engaged in self-organizing efforts to not only protect themselves and their communities, but to begin the critically important revolutionary task of constructing bottom-up infrastructures of a genuine democracy. They are busy constructing the foundation of a new society that serves the needs of everyone to replace the capitalist organization of society which delivers so much wealth and power to a few. The Spanish people are starting to realize that there is no alternative: they must construct a genuine democracy or our masters will continue to lead us down the road to a nightmarish fascism and the destruction of the biosphere for human habitation. 

This short documentary explores ongoing resistance and self-organization in the midst of the economic and social crisis in Madrid, Spain.

As social conditions continue to deteriorate across the country, people have been turning to the streets and to each other to find for solutions to the crisis. This film tells a story of the massive mobilization that saw millions of people converge on Madrid on March 22nd 2014, the story of the proliferation of social centers, community gardens, self-organized food banks, and the story of large-scale housing occupations by and for families that have been evicted. The film pieces together many of the creative ways that people have been coping with crisis and asks what the future may hold for Spain.

Filmed and edited in March/April 2014, it is part of the Global Uprisings documentary series.

‘Kiev desperately pushing for greater conflict with Russia’

Click here to access a 4:37m interview (with transcript) with German investigative journalist Manuel Ochsenreiter posted on RT.

Ochsenreiter argues that the right sector in Ukraine is trying desperately to bring on a wider war in Ukraine by violating any agreements reached by international parties. He poses the worrying argument that this is a deliberate ploy by Western agents so that they can have deniability for their aggressive agenda to bring all of Ukraine under NATO control. 

This argument is very bewildering to me because I do not see that the present US regime or their counterparts in Europe are prepared for the dangerous potential such actions have to bring about a wider war. To be sure there are right-wing elements in the the West who have a very arrogant attitude toward Russia and believe they can intimidate Russia, but there have been official statements coming from the Obama administration that suggest a desire to dissipate the crisis in Ukraine. So, what are the real policies informing US Empire actions? If the German journalist's argument is correct, then Western agents are playing a very dangerous game in Europe. He writes in reference to the new regime brought to power by the violent overthrow of the government: 

 It’s a failed state, so the government in Kiev is nothing else as satellite government. It’s a mix of oligarchs and organized crime, and of course terrorists – the Right Sector. We should see it as a terrorist organization, activists of the Right Sector fought in Chechen wars against Russia alongside Islamism terrorists. So we should see that Kiev doesn’t have a will as well as the power to crack down on those people [in Eastern Ukrainian], and that long since [for several] weeks other people telling [them] what to be done, what not, we have to see that American advisors already active there, that there are NATO advisors, we have to see this in a context that Poland is asking for 10,000 US troops on their soil. Something big is going on and the Right Sector’s aggression against the Eastern Ukrainian is just a little pretext of what we will maybe expect within the next weeks.

Taking On the Fashion Industry

Click here to access a book review of Stitched Up: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion by Tansy E. Hoskins posted on MRZine. 

The fashion industry's operations provide an excellent example of how capitalism works from one end, the exploitation of working people, to the other end of consumption driven by advertising, the engine of consumption. This book appears to provide an excellent exploration of this key industry of capitalism. 

The exploitation of consumers in New York or London is clearly less horrifying than the treatment of workers in Bangladesh, but it remains exploitation.  Frequently using and reinforcing racist and sexist stereotypes, fashion pressures working people here to consume, and to consume more than they can afford.  Women especially are subjected to "constant messages that [they] must diet, must get cosmetic surgery, buy clothes and feel bad about themselves," Hoskins writes.  And those of us who can resist the omnipresent pressure to buy are still compelled to "dress for success" if we hope to get and hold most types of job.  

Towards the End of U.S. Propaganda

Click here to access article by Thierry Meyssan from VoltaireNet.

Meyssan proposes a very interesting, hopeful argument that the world of ruling class propaganda has changed, and changed for the better. He reviews the early, successful history of war propaganda starting in 1915 when the British issued the infamous Bryce Report on German war crimes to enlist their population in a war against Germany, and continues with such efforts during WWII. He argues that the present proliferation of alternative sources of information has radially changed things. I think he is referring to the internet and the access it gives to people all over the world, to TV media networks like RT, and such journalists as Pepe Escobar, that are independent of Empire control and accessible in the US.

Barack Obama and Benjamin Rhodes , John Kerry and Richard Stengel act only in the short term. Their propaganda convinces the masses for only a few weeks and then helps create revulsion when the people understand they are being manipulated. Unwittingly, they undermine the credibility of the state institutions of NATO who consciously relay them. They forget that the propaganda of the twentieth century could only succeed because the world was divided into blocks that did not communicate with one another, and this monolithic principle is incompatible with the new means of communication.

Ukraine: The Bloody Eastern Escalation

Click here to access article by Bernhard from his blog Moon of Alabama. 

For the very latest news on the Empire's latest victim, follow this blog. 

This is very bad news. The OSCE had reported that Pravyi Sektor paramilitaries were moving to the eastern Donbass region. It looks like they have arrived.

It seems the U.S. neocons found out that they can not have the Ukraine and are responding like they always do. "Can't have it? Will destroy it!"

Film of the Week: Quants — The Alchemists of Wall Street

Click here to access 47:48m video posted by Don Quijones from Raging Bull-Shit (Spain).

With the banks ruling the world, and the machines as good as ruling the banks, just how close are we to another major financial crash?

In this brilliant VPRO documentary, some of the world’s leading “quants” — that is, people who specialize in the application of mathematical and statistical methods to financial and risk management problems – voice their fears about the financial industry’s almost complete dependence on mathematical models, many of them deeply flawed.

What I got from the film is that the new financial products that capitalists gamble with are based on assumptions about the future which have their roots in the most basic of all capitalist assumptions--economic growth. Capitalism requires growth to exist, hence people who work for capitalists such as mathematicians create models and mathematics with growth built into them. Inevitably these assumptions are wrong because reality based on people is constantly changing. Investments, or the bets, based on these assumptions are huge, the payoffs huge, but also the consequences for economic destruction are huge most of which are born by ordinary people. 

The bust part of these cycles are happening at an increasing rate. Capitalists, who incidentally are a ruling class, use their control of the state and central banks to provide stimulus in the form of low interest rates to create more money (debts to nations) and another cycle of big payoffs is created for them. (For an interesting commentary on the role of the Fed, read this piece by James Kunstler.)

I would also argue that because their assumptions, on which their logarithms are based, are motivated by the basic capitalist requirement of growth, they are disastrously wrong given the fact that growth can no longer be sustained given the finite limits of the planet. So, we must choose between two options: change the system or experience a nightmarish dystopia and probably extinction.

View the fascinating video and see what you think.

Seed Wars: Latin America Strikes Back Against Monsanto

Click here to access article by Don Quijones from Raging Bull-Shit.

The author reports on a global backlash against corporate owned, engineered seeds in the form of protests and political actions particularly in Latin America.

...despite its tireless lobbying efforts in Brussels, Monsanto and its main rivals continue to hit a brick wall of resistance in many of Europe’s biggest markets, including Germany and France. And now, with popular resistance on the rise in Latin America, the U.S. agribusiness giant faces the prospect, albeit slim, of losing its grip on one of its most important strategic markets.

A new wave of environmental protest rocks China

Click here to access article by James Smart from Reflections on a Revolution.

Ahkok Wong is an activist and school lecturer from down the road in Hong Kong, potentially enjoying his last two days of freedom.

“Environmental problems are one of the main outcomes of a one party-ruled, corrupted, non-humane government,” he starts. “The citizens started discovering what harm the PX [paraxylene]  plant can bring, so there are [a lot] of protests, and then the police arrest and kill protesters, forcing people to sign agreements that they support PX plants,” he continues. “They control the media and the internet so the news cannot get across the country.”

Protesters like Ahkok are sentenced by a judiciary with links to the government, which in turn has links to big business — for example, the Maoming PX joint venture between Sinopec and the state.

Climate Change Meets High Tech: An Eco-Future is Possible

Click here to access article by Robert Hunziker from The Greanville Post. 

This article assures us that it is okay to continue practicing our addiction to consuming all kinds of frivolous products. I'm referring to the drugs delivered by the global system of capitalism. Some people think that capitalism is a racket run by drug lords to supply us with all kinds of stuff to fill up our empty lives such as electronic gadgets, car-cars, the latest fashions, cosmetics to make us look younger, etc. That's nonsense! Forget about climate destabilization and environmental destruction. We humans can go on producing and consuming forever on our little planet. Yes, folks, the solution to all these crises is at hand! Fusion energy!

It seems that whenever we are sufficiently aroused out of our drug-induced slumber we become too concerned about some of the effects of our habit--such as, it will kill us--that our capitalist drug lords trot out their favorite fantasies such as climate engineering and carbon capture so that we keep practicing our habit of consuming frivolous stuff. When these fantasies don't work, they bring out their ultimate fantasy--excuse me, "fact"--this time from the United States Navy!

Looking ahead into the future, the Navy predicts seawater fuel will cost $3-6 per gallon, and it could be available on a commercial scale within 10 years.

Now, please excuse me, I must leave to go shopping for the very cool Nike Fingertrap Max sneakers.

Let them eat cake! IMF the equality champion?

Click here to access article from Bretton Woods Project.

Talk of inequality seems to be all the rage in Western media, and this has been spearheaded by such notable figures as Obama, and here in this article it is reported that no less than the IMF director Christine Lagarde has raised the issue. Being a rather cynical doubter of all things printed in mainstream media, I ask: are they serious?

I think the answer is partly "yes" and mostly "no". This article supports my opinion by revealing that IMF actions indicate that such concerns about inequality are for public relations purposes only. Let me explain.

In the past, like in the Great Depression of the 1930s, the ruling capitalist class was seriously concerned about the dramatic gaps between the rich and the poor. Also, there was a very militant labor movement that was concerned about social justice which was inspired by the mostly theoretical ideas coming from the Soviet Union and the actual fact that the workers of the latter country experienced no unemployment. I do not think that they have that concern today. 

In today's Western societies they have in place very effective means of controlling dissent: the concentration of media provides for control of information, highly advanced technology and police state methods to surveil potential revolutionaries, and militarized police forces. 

However, the ruling class also has a more serious concern about the phenomenon of a diminishing middle class. A happy middle class is a critical requirement to the stability of a capitalist ruling system simply because they actually run the system while capitalists, who reward them with the vaunted middle class lifestyles, skim off most of the benefits from a system that exploits both workers and the environment. Besides, it is widely recognized that revolutions in recent centuries have all been led by middle class people. 

While the second concern exists, I think that most of the publicized concern is rhetorical and informed by a desire to divert political opposition into paths which will require an enormous expenditure of energies, but will end up in the scrapheap of failed efforts. I'm referring here to the growing phenomenon of publicity about dramatic raises in the minimum raise, such as $15 per hour in Seattle and the advocacy of a guaranteed annual wage. 

Labor advocates such as Shamus Cooke have devoted many articles (see this and this) to promote dramatic increases in minimum wage laws, and now we see the appearance of David Graeber on PBS TV extolling the benefits of a guaranteed income. I have commented on the minimum wage campaign previously here, so let me address my observations about the latter.

Anarchists are usually smeared by ruling class mainstream media as hooligans, often compared to terrorists, and never given access to their media. So, it is remarkable that PBS gave coverage to anarchist Graeber's views promoting a guaranteed income. I understand why a ruling class TV network would want to promote such a dead-end proposal, but it makes me wonder a lot about Graeber. Such access to mainstream media is often a method used by media directors as bait to lure left-wing critics to advocate safe reforms to the system and eventually to thoroughly co-opt them. I hope this isn't the case with Graeber.

Perfection Anxiety

Click here to access article by A. A. Gill from Vanity Fair.

This is another contribution to my practice on Saturdays to run articles about our fellow citizens of the One Percent (actually .01 of the 1%, or one out of every 10,000 of us) hoping that by doing this that we don't lose touch with their world and their concerns--you know, to promote understanding. It is important that we become better acquainted so that we can serve them better and make it easier for them to carry out the daily burden of making important decisions, decisions which affect whether we go off to war in foreign lands to kill their enemies, if we have jobs, if we live in a home or under a bridge, if we can afford their health care services, education, etc.

Unfortunately, for some reason they tend to hide their lives from the rest of us behind walls of secrecy, literal walls of guarded gated communities, private clubs, esoteric publications, by traveling with private jets, etc. We should not let that deter us.
 
Today we have to thank Vanity Fair for making us aware in this article of a widespread disease plaguing the rich. I think it reasonable to believe that many of the rich were not even aware of it, and probably not conscious that they, too, might be suffering from it. Thankfully, you and I don't have to worry about it.

When you have 15 houses, yachts in three oceans, planes, cellars, mistresses, surgery, a library, and a personal charity, new purchases become just a matter of upgrading. And this is where the Perfection Anxiety kicks in. What you need is to have not just the most but the very, very best. The super-rich watch each other like envious owls, to see who’s got a slightly better loafer, a pullover made from some even more absurdly endangered fur. They will go to any lengths to find the best tailors. I know of a man who gets his suit pants made in Italy and the jackets on Savile Row.

Gill reports on some other symptoms of this disease plaguing the rich: 

And when you’ve got the best of everything, when you have your tea flown in from a micro-garden in Darjeeling and it still tastes rather like tea, when you’ve designed your own scent made from the squeezed glands of civets and the petals of rare orchids and that fails to give you the high—“When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer”—then you’re reduced to collecting art.

Ukraine and the grand chessboard

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times Online.

I love the way Escobar ridicules Western propagandists who with their preposterous statements give him so many opportunities. Ridicule and laughter offer a healthy way to neutralize so much of the absurdity of US media coverage.

The US State Department, via spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki, said that reports of CIA Director John Brennan telling regime changers in Kiev to "conduct tactical operations" - or an "anti-terrorist" offensive - in eastern Ukraine are "completely false". This means Brennan did issue his marching orders. And by now the "anti-terrorist" campaign - with its nice little Dubya rhetorical touch - has degenerated into farce.

Now couple that with NATO secretary general, Danish retriever Anders Fogh Rasmussen, yapping about the strengthening of military footprint along NATO's eastern border: "We will have more planes in the air, mores ships on the water and more readiness on the land."

Welcome to the Two Stooges doctrine of post-modern warfare.

Unfortunately, many Americans take such statements from the Ministry of Truth as straight information. This is largely because the so-called "free press" is very well managed by the ruling class and consistently gives out stories that are unchallenged by any alternative views. And, many Americans consider it un-American to get their news and analysis from sources other than corporate media.   

Generally, Escobar's analysis suggests that the Empire with its latest actions is only digging its grave deeper.

Interview: Big Men Director Rachel Boynton on Oil, Ghana and "Responsible Capitalism"

Click here to access article by Steve Horn from DeSmogBlog.

This piece interested me because I think it is a good illustration of limited thinking on the parts of the participants, the interviewer Horn and the interviewee Boynton, a film director, who answered questions about her film "Big Men". 

The limits of the discussion were wider than most because of the recognition that the drama in her film involved the system of capitalism and the many conflicts and undesirable consequences that often follow their operations. However, the questions and comments in the interview clearly indicated that both considered the system as a given or constant, whereas questions about human nature as well as the possibilities of capitalist outcomes were left open for the viewer to question. 

Neither Horn nor Boynton thought about questioning the system itself. Although they named the system, their questions and comments clearly reinforced the idea that "there is no alternative". Thus, Brad Pitt, the producer, leads readers to speculate over whether there is such a thing as responsible capitalism; whereas Boynton leads readers to speculate about the (capitalist) nature of humans.

Such limited thinking is a major hurdle for all ordinary people to overcome if humanity is ever going to find its salvation. Websites like this encourage people to stay safely inside limits that capitalist ideological enforcers can tolerate.

The West Marches East, Part 1: The U.S.-NATO Strategy to Isolate Russia

Click here to access article by Andrew Gavin Marshall from The Hampton Institute.

As an antidote to the poison of the Empire's anti-Russian propaganda, Marshall provides us with some inconvenient current and historical facts. Ultimately, the Empire's actions boil down to this:

...the United States is the global 'Godfather' of the Mafia crime family of Western industrial nations (the NATO powers). Countries like Russia and China are reasonably-sized crime families in their own right, but largely dependent upon the Godfather, with whom they both cooperate and compete for influence.

When the Mafia - and the Godfather - are disobeyed, whether by small nations (such as Iraq, Syria, Libya, et. al.), or by larger gangster states like China or Russia, the Godfather will seek to punish them. Disobedience cannot be tolerated. If a small country can defy the Godfather, then any country can. If a larger gangster state like Russia can defy the Godfather and get away with it, they might continue to challenge the authority of the Godfather.

Of course, this is the nature of capitalism as it is for every system that privileges one segment of society over another. Such gangs end up competing with gangs from other nations for dominance, and we have inter-gang wars which ordinary people fight and die in. This will last as long as we tolerate gangs, as long as we tolerate privileges like private ownership of an economy over the needs of whole societies. We must stop believing all the lies of the gangsters that there is no alternative to the existing societal arrangements; and then, we must be prepared to sacrifice immediate comforts to fight against such gangster organizations.  

We have a choice: continue to accept these societal arrangements that make such gangs possible, their inter-gang wars, and all the other forms of suffering we endure, or we destroy these arrangements and construct egalitarian societies.

One of the most powerful documentaries on 9/11—ever.

I thank the people at The Greanville Post for posting this 1:44:55 video and bringing it to my attention. I watched it last night and I was profoundly impressed. I have read a lot about this 9/11 project which prepared ordinary Americans for a much more aggressive foreign policy abroad and the installation of the infrastructure of a police state at home. But this profession quality Italian film captured this project better than any other single film production, and made it so any ordinary person could easily follow it. 

It had to be made abroad because there are too many pressures on companies associated with film production here in the US to prevent any serious examination of the event. I urge everyone to view it over this long holiday weekend.

I am posting this YouTube film instead of the same one in the article because it identifies the correct title of the film--"ZERO: An Investigation Into 9/11".

America's Thin-Skinned Billionaires

Click here to access article by Paul Krugman from TruthOut.

Never mind freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, freedom from fear. What America's embattled billionaires are demanding, as their birthright (and I mean that pretty much literally), is something much more important: freedom from criticism.

Making a desperate stand in The Wall Street Journal, heroic, oppressed men like Tom Perkins [see this] and now Charles Koch have been telling it like it is: anyone who says anything negative about them is just like the Nazis, or maybe Stalin. 

Is India on a Totalitarian Path? Arundhati Roy on Corporatism, Nationalism and World’s Largest Vote

Click here to access a one hour video interview (with transcript) with activist and writer Arundhati Roy from Democracy Now!.

In the interview Roy attempts to explain how India is going down the neoliberal path by touching on the subjects of foreign investments, IMF policies, deeply indebted farmers, use of paramilitaries and regular armed forces to clear the land of populations resisting such policies, and the control of Indian politics by major corporations.

 ARUNDHATI ROY: So, I’m talking about how, when you have this kind of control over all business, over the media, over its essential infrastructure, electricity generation, information, everything, then you just field your, you know, pet politicians. ...reasons that is being attributed to the slowdown of the economy is the fact that there is a tremendous resistance to all of this from the people on the ground, from the people who are being displaced, from the—and in the forests, it’s the Maoist guerrillas; in the villages, it’s all kinds of people’s movements—all of whom are of course being called Maoist. And now...these new economic policies cannot be implemented unless—except with state—with coercive state violence. So you have a situation where the forests are full of paramilitary just burning villages, you know, pushing people out of their homes, trying to clear the land for mining companies to whom the government has signed.... So there is a kind of war which, of course, always existed in India. There hasn’t been a year when the Indian army hasn’t been deployed against its own people. ....

AMY GOODMAN: Since when?

 ARUNDHATI ROY: Since independence, since 1947, you know? But now the plan is to deploy them. Now it’s the paramilitary. But this new election is going to be who is the person that the corporates choose, who is not going to blink about putting the Indian—about deploying the Indian army against the poorest people in this country, you know, and pushing them out to give over those lands, those rivers, those mountains, to the major mining corporations. So this is what we are being prepared for now—the air force, the army, going in into the heart of India now.

I used the phrase "attempts to explain" deliberately. I was not pleased by the way the interviewers handled the interview. Both interviewers seemed more interested in drawing out her views regarding the upcoming national elections in India, but that really wasn't what Roy was interested in because she quickly explained that the whole government apparatus was controlled by large corporations. She began to launch into what really interested her: an explanation of the role of NGOs in influencing media and the people.

“Having worked out how to manage governments, political parties, elections, courts, the media and liberal opinion, the neoliberal establishment faced one more challenge: how to deal with the growing unrest, the threat of ’people’s power.’ How do you domesticate it? How do you turn protesters into pets? How do you vacuum up people’s fury and redirect it into a blind alley?

She then started to discuss the origins of NGOs in the US and their role here in shaping political activity so that they would not interfere with capitalist agendas. However, before she could get into their role in India, a co-interviewer diverted the discussion in another, less controversial direction: what Roy intended to write about in the future.

This diversion and the framing of the whole interview around elections really peaked my interest. I couldn't help but wonder if the management of the interview itself didn't actually illustrate what Roy was getting into: the influence of NGOs or of non-profit funding agencies to act as limiting agents or gatekeepers to contain dissent. 

"Democracy Now!" has been cited as one media outlet among many that have received ruling class foundation money as reported by Edward Ulrich in his article "Media Outlets Such as 'Democracy Now!' are Establishment Controlled News Sources". Stuart Bramhall and others have reported on the history of the CIA and other government agencies infiltrating news organizations to disseminate false information up until Church Committee investigations in 1975, after which foundations became more active in funding and influencing media that might pose too critical a threat to the policies of the ruling One Percent. 

Such funding mainly functions to limit what left media outlets cover and how they cover controversial topics. Perhaps that explains the reason why the popular left-wing media program Democracy Now! has always refused to interview knowledgeable people about evidence that puts in doubt the official reports about 9/11, the Boston Bombing, and other terrorist incidents. 

Inequality and the drive to war

Click here to access article by Andre Damon from World Socialist Web Site.

Damon reminds us of the old historical strategy used by ruling classes to head of opposition to their rule by quoting James Madison, the author of the Bill of Rights: “Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war whenever a revolt was apprehended.” He goes on in the rest of the article to show how this relationship is playing out in the US today. 

It seems that one military crisis after another occurs where our masters in the US ruling class are involved, and who frequently threaten greater US involvement. Their policies in such crises are always supported by massive propaganda campaigns to justify their actions. 

Then with the one-year anniversary of the Boston Bombing yesterday, we are reminded of the use of domestic terrorist incidents which seem to serve the same purpose: there are "evil doers" out there who are threatening us, and we must be prepared to use military force against them while curtailing our own civil liberties. So, forget about growing inequality and social injustice--we've got to fight those "evil-doers"! This favorite strategy of all ruling classes has worked for millennia. Are we of the 99 Percent still stupid enough to continue falling for it? If so, then maybe we deserve our subjugation.

Years Of Living Dangerously: Is This The New Trend?

Click here to access article by Denise Robbins from Media Matters. 

Both specials treat manmade global warming as a given and feature established experts on climate science, a welcome change from the contrarian "skeptics" that have been infiltrating the media with doubt and misinformation. "Years of Living Dangerously" begins with Harrison Ford inspecting carbon dioxide measurements -- the primary cause of manmade global warming -- with the help of NASA scientists. ....

Although the premiere episode of "Years Of Living Dangerously" doesn't touch on any solutions to climate change, the series promises to address solutions in later episodes, including segments on renewable energy, global warming as a political priority, and the "greening" of the corporate sector.

Robbins points out the significance of two TV programs which recognize the fact of climate destabilization (media managers use the more benign term "global warming")--NBC's "Our Year Of Extremes" broadcast on April 6th and Showtime's broadcast of the first of a series of nine programs entitled ""Years of Living Dangerously". I think Robbins exaggerates the promise of these programs by repeating the claims of spokespeople of the latter series to offer solutions, the real significance is that our ruling class can no longer ignore the scientific evidence which has been buttressed by recent extreme weather events. 

What these programs have revealed now for the first time are the facts that have been known and reported in alternative media for many years. I think we can safely assume that their solutions will be compatible with business as usual by mainly promoting nuclear power, carbon capture, and climate engineering.

South Africa Today: Apartheid by Another Name

Click here to access article by John Pilger from The Greanville Post. (This article originally appeared in the Sunday Times, Johannesburg, but it lies behind a paywall at that website.)

Pilger does an excellent job of deconstructing the myths about Mandela that have been constructed by compliant Western historians and media propaganists who find it rewarding to serve the needs of Western capitalist propaganda. 

The New Great Game Round-Up: April 13, 2014

Click here to access article by Christoph Germann from Boiling Frogs.

Germann essentially gives us a play-by-play description of the inter-capitalist gang rivalries which will cause untold suffering for ordinary people. It appears that the recent bellicose moves by the Empire to punish Russia for interfering with the Empire's activities in Syria is pushing Russia closer to China which is also being threatened by the Empire. Another result is that China is rapidly building up its military.

Such is the nature of the capitalist games to control access to resources (especially energy), markets, and cheap labor. In addition to these contests, we are now witnessing the Empire's regime-change strategy to augment its control of governments in order to impose more sovereign debts on people under the control of neoliberal technocrats such as we've seen in Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. 

As long as we the people of the world allow this system and its various self-serving gangs to rule over us, we will be plagued by never-ending mini-wars and other crises. (The most immediate crisis is in Ukraine.)

Mobilizing for the common: some lessons from Italy

Click here to access article by Jerome Roos from Reflections on a Revolution.

Bravo! Roos and this website continue to impress me as being on the cutting edge of revolutionary thought. This article, which contains a wealth of excellent links to other resources, is an outstanding example of such revolutionary thinking. I have been surveying websites intensively for the past five years and I have found no single website that is as advanced in revolutionary thinking as this one is. 

As with many of the articles posted at the site, this one needs to be studied rather than merely read casually. Some linked resources are better than others, but that is for each person to decide depending on their experience and orientation. I found the best link to be to the article entitled "Crises of Imagination, Crises of Power" by Max Haiven that was posted in January (which I missed for some reason!).

I have tried to argue previously that capitalism is not merely a system which is preoccupied with the accumulation of material wealth and power. It is a comprehensive system that affects all of our existence, that distorts our relationships, our interpretations of realty, and our imaginations. In other words, it has colonized our very minds. This is the secret of its success; it is the secret of its exploitation of us; it is why we continue with our daily grind of serving the interests of those few who preside over the system regardless of all the profound devastating consequences on our lives and on the planet. As Haiven observes, capitalism is not only about the...

...dynamics of class struggle and capitalist accumulation of a century ago, the system is more invested than ever in preoccupying and enclosing our sense of self and of the future; our hopes, dreams and aspirations; and our capacity to imagine. As such, the possibilities of meaningful solidarity and class struggle depend on the politics of the imagination. The imagination is a material process: it emerges from and informs our capacity to cooperate and labor together, and as such is at the core of the reproduction of value. If we can understand capitalism as a system based on the reproduction of value, the role of the imagination cannot be gainsaid.

As capitalist crises deepen under today’s new regimes of austerity, the desire to reinforce our ignorance, apathy and fatalism becomes stronger.  

Three presentations by David Harvey on his new book entitled "Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism"

There are three video and audio presentations on two websites featuring Harvey explaining some of his views of capitalism that he writes about in his new book. Because I've only had time to sample them, I will not offer any comments. Harvey is a leading exponent of anti-capitalist thought.

Here is a one hour radio interview with Harvey from SoundCloud.

From Harvey's own website we can access a 1hr8min video presentation he gave at the Royal Society of the Arts during which he focuses on three contradictions in the first 27 minute period followed by a question and answer period.

Another from video presentation by Harvey from his website was of his lecture at The London School of Economics and Political Science. This lasts about 1 1/2 hour. 

Venezuela shows that protest can be a defence of privilege

Click here to access article by Seumas Milne from The Guardian.

The Empire's agents that have brought us false-flag terrorism are now producing false-flag protests as another means of manipulating the 99 Percent into serving the Empire's regime-change projects.

If we didn't know it before, the upsurge in global protest in the past couple of years has driven home the lesson that mass demonstrations can have entirely different social and political meanings. Just because they wear bandannas and build barricades – and have genuine grievances – doesn't automatically mean protesters are fighting for democracy or social justice.

From Ukraine to Thailand and Egypt to Venezuela, large-scale protests have aimed at, or succeeded in, ousting elected governments in the past year. In some countries, mass protests have been led by working class organisations, targeting austerity and corporate power. In others, predominantly middle class unrest has been the lever to restore ousted elites.

Libertaria: A Libertarian Paradise

Click here to access article by John Spritzler from New Democracy World.  

Spritzler constructs a pure economic libertarian nation to introduce an egalitarian vision of a nation. This piece is helpful in clarifying the difference between an organization of society ruled by those who want the owners of economic property to be free of all restrictions; and a society organized around strictly egalitarian principles where people have, as much as possible, equal access to the decision making process and to the benefits of the entire economy in which property ownership is limited to personal property. 

The key difference here, of course, hinges on the notion of property ownership: personal property versus social property. The concept of social property essentially recognizes the social nature of economic property when property is used by more than one person, or a family, to obtain material value. 

The history of capitalism has been essentially a struggle between advocates of these two concepts. Capitalists as a class have dominated most societies over the past 400 years. And, now we are seeing the results in a dramatic bifurcation of societies: a tiny class of "owners" of economic property that have accrued enormous amounts of wealth and, its concomitant, power, and an underclass, who are the vast majority, who live in precarious economic conditions with little political influence. These extreme in-egalitarian conditions have devolved into a dystopia, so well described and analyzed by critics such as Henry Giroux, and now exists throughout the world dominated by capitalist elites. 

However, this type of organization of societies goes against what is a basic component of human nature: social justice or fairness. Thus, people are raising questions, protesting, and rebelling. Hence, the need by this capitalist class to obscure the nature of their rule as much as possible through their control of all the ideological institutions of society while greatly augmenting all its authoritarian methods of control.

The McCutcheon ruling and zombie democracy in the U.S.

Click here to access article by Ajamu Baraka from CounterPunch and his blog A Voice from the Margins.

...the McCutcheon decision, which makes it easier for the corporate and financial elite to buy elections and candidates, is a serious ruling that conveys a devastatingly simple message: that the furtherance of the neoliberal project and the maintenance of the U.S. Empire require the evisceration of democracy. 

That message has always been clear to those of us on the margins who have never had the luxury of embracing illusion as a way of life. For us, democracy in the U.S. has always been a “zombie democracy”—a rotten facsimile that looked a little like democracy, sounded like democracy and even had some democratic forms, but was never the real thing, never really alive.

His very accurate description of the founding of the US government and its constitution makes clear that from the very beginning the nascent capitalist class who at that time consisted of land speculators like George Washington, slave owners like Thomas Jefferson, bankers like Alexander Hamilton, and merchants like Robert Morris (traded with both sides during the Revolutionary War) successfully established a nation based on capitalism and its sacred component of private ownership of the economy. They looked at the continent, on which they occupied a small part, and saw the huge potential for exploitation of its riches. Only "savages" and the British government stood in their way.  

Capitalist historians like to refer reverently to "the Founding Fathers", but this brief article sets the record straight. The democratic themes they wrote in the Declaration of Independence before the revolution were quickly forgotten once the Founding Fathers succeeded in separating the colonies from Britain. They merely used these themes to induce many ordinary Americans to support their project of establishing a nation under their control. Once this was accomplished, they then secretly conspired to secure their control by writing a new constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation.

The possibility of democracy was aborted by Thomas Jefferson and the white, male, property-owning, settler “revolutionaries” who declared their independence in 1776. It was aborted by the first American coup in Philadelphia in 1787, when men of property ignored the mandate from their state legislatures to strengthen the Articles of Confederation and instead met in secret to produce a document that would solidify their power.  The resulting Constitution consolidated a white, male, property-owning republic that reduced black people to 3/5th of a person, marked the indigenous for genocide and did not mention democracy anywhere in its text. 

Likewise, the European capitalist classes first supported these democratic themes in their battle against the land-owning aristocracy. The success of the US revolutionary movement inspired the French bourgeoisie to use the same strategy in the 1789 French revolution.

The rising capitalist classes of both countries used people like Thomas Paine and Jean-Jacques Rousseau to spread ideas of equality; but after their revolutions were accomplished, their ideas were continued only in their propaganda and indoctrination programs. They held elections to choose leaders, but only property owners were allowed to participate. Since then they have gradually expanded the voting franchise as they perfected their control of the political machinery of elections, instituted indoctrination into education, and spread their propaganda throughout their media. 

Sheldon Adelson's Menagerie

Click here to access 2:02m video by Mark Fiore from his website. (satire)

Sheldon Adelson

In case you missed it, a number of potential Republican presidential candidates went down to Las Vegas to bow at the feet of Sheldon Adelson, democracy-meddling billionaire extraordinaire.  It was a pretty sorry sight as each of the potential candidates tried to out-Israel and out-tough the other as they vied for Adelson's attention.  (And mustn't forget Sheldon bestowing actual awards for being a "great Zionist" in the past.)
 
Even though ol' Sheldon didn't have a very good track record on his bets last go-round, he has a huge impact on the primaries, even if his horses don't win in the end.  We are witnessing the selling out of democracy to cheesy casino-owners.  (Because, y'know, some people have more free speech than others if they have a few billion to throw around.)

Besides the presidential candidates, Sheldon's casino cash is buying some favorable legislation that would knock out some online gaming competitors.  Thanks, Lindsey Graham, glad to see you're representing your good ol' Southern Baptist constituents!  Enjoy the cartoon, and hold onto your hats now that the Supreme Court just threw more cash into the mix.

How the Media Whitewash the Face of Capitalism

Click here to access article by Patrice Greanville from The Greanville Post.

What is a bit discouraging about this excellent post is that it was written and published in their print edition back in 1982, almost 32 years ago! It's clear that such views didn't make a dent in the American psyche. Even today, many people who are upset about things only want wars to go away. 

Such is the case with Rick Staggenborg, MD who writes today in opposition to wars by explaining that they have something to do with our history since WWII, and something to do with corporate war profiteers and their propaganda. What he writes is all true, but why can't he then take the next step and tie it to the system of capitalism? It seems that he is another victim of not only the propaganda that he writes about, but the whole system of capitalist indoctrination. He has bought into one of the basic myths of this indoctrination that Greanville exposed 32 years ago--that capitalism is based on human nature:

This propaganda equation [myth] is one of the oldest and most effective ideological weapons utilized in defense of capitalism. It pays off handsomely in a number of important ways. ...if capitalism is congruent with “human nature,” then the capitalist system must be the most “natural” and “logical” form of social organization, as people will have a built-in tendency to observe its basic rules.

Of course, these capitalist myths which they have poured into the minds of citizens since birth are not just the result of journalistic media. They are proliferated everywhere: in all education, in entertainment, in our workplaces, etc., repeated endlessly by our peers and families, and it may be in the very air we breath. The fact is, this 24/7 brainwashing is absolutely necessary if the ruling One Percent class is to continue with their system, the goose which lays them so many golden eggs. It is necessary in order to get us to serve them, to stop what we're doing and go off to kill people who are their enemies in foreign lands, to get us to work for paltry wages, to determine what work we do and when, to endure unemployment, poverty, ill health, etc.

We don't have wars merely because of corporate propaganda, but because corporate propaganda is an integral and inevitable part of capitalism.

So, the big question for today is: are we going to continue to be brainwashed by their indoctrination and propaganda, and thereby insure that we continue to be plagued by wars, unemployment, austerity, poverty, etc? There is now much more at stake--think about it: if capitalism continues, we face climate destabilization and the end of the human race along with other species!

CNN's Chicagoland: An 8 Part Miniseries Campaign Commercial For Rahm Emanuel and Urban Neoliberalism

Click here to access article by Bruce A. Dixon from Black Agenda Report.

This new TV series provides an excellent illustration of how our ruling One Percent uses entertainment to indoctrinate us into supporting their agenda. Dixon reveals what this new TV series is really designed to do:

Chicagoland nimbly ignores our capacity for rational thought, aiming instead at our guts and feelings. It shifts rapidly from gritty, compelling image to image, from sports stadiums as economic development tools, to Isaiah Thomas, Magic Johnson & Duane Wade as token sports figures offering “inspiration” and mentoring as the answer to job and education opportunities that don't exist. It depicts implacable urban violence as an existential fact kept at bay by the thin blue line of the city's police. This vision of urban life has a name. It's called neoliberalism.

Under neoliberalism, the problems of poverty and the poor are deemed unsolvable. The neoliberal vision calls upon us all to instead to retool and reform our individual lives, to pull ourselves up by bootstraps or whatever, seek or be role models, mentors and mentees, to adjust our expectations of society and solidarity downward and our positive attitudes upward. That's the unspoken vision Chicagoland is selling.

If you think that this is an extreme example or that you wouldn't encounter this on "public TV", then you are very naive. For example, read this piece entitled "Why Is Public Television Against Public Schools?" in which the author, Peter Dreier, only provides liberal hints to the answer:

PBS once received a significant amount of money from the federal government. But conservatives saw to it that Washington gradually slashed much of that subsidy from what used to be called "educational television." To keep going, PBS stations around the country have relied more and more on financial support not only from "viewers like you" but also from big corporations and their foundations. The people chosen to run PBS and many of its local affiliates are no longer experienced broadcasters but sycophantic fundraisers.

So when it comes to assigning reporters and camerapersons to poke behind the wall of billionaire backing for school privatization, public TV has been, for the most part, missing-in-action.

The fact is, there has never been a real "public TV", that is, a TV organization that supports the interests of the 99 Percent. PBS is under the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and as such is very well integrated with the ruling One Percent. Although local TV stations have some independence, they are run by boards of directors made up of local One Percenters.

From Cheerleader to Enemy of the State

Click here to access article which is an excerpt from a book Radical Peace: Refusing War by William Hathaway posted on World News Trust.

The excerpt gives us an idea of what happens to teachers if they try to teach real facts:

The long, flouncy curls from Judy Davis's cheerleader days are gone. Her straight blonde hair is now cut short. Large blue eyes stand out in a face pale without makeup. Her soft Southern drawl has an undertone of determination. "It's taken me awhile, but now I'm glad to be considered an 'unsuitable influence.' That was how the school board justified my firing. That and 'deviating from the curriculum.' It's like they were implying I was a deviant. And according to their norms, I am."

The 29-year-old was fired for teaching her high school students how U.S. foreign policy has provoked terrorism. This struggle with her school board turned her from a Republican into a revolutionary for peace.

He elicits a number of interesting views from her about the future and activism such as this:

"What do you see happening?" I asked her.

"Guerrilla warfare will gradually defeat the empire overseas, prevent it from expanding. So it'll turn inward and start squeezing its own people more. Since it's inherently unjust, that's the only way it can maintain itself. When we revolt against that, it'll turn fascist. In a couple of generations we'll overthrow the fascism. And then we'll build ... who knows? That's a long ways away, and we have a lot to do until then."

At one point she makes the following statement:

"The founding fathers were just rich men looking after their own interests. Just like our current leaders are. We need to knock these patriarchs off their pedestals.

"They've become masters at recruiting women to serve their interests. Most women politicians are offering us the same old system dressed up in a new outfit, just patriarchy with perfume."

I asked her how she thinks we should oppose patriarchy.

Unfortunately, Hathaway's response seems to frame the incident and the general problem of capitalist ruling class control of education as a cultural problem (together with the sub-headline "Radical Peace is a collection of reports from antiwar activists, the true stories of their efforts to change our warrior culture")--one of patriarchy, and diverts the discussion into her observations about patriarchy.

But, it's clear to me that she doesn't see it that way--women are equally susceptible of supporting capitalism as are men. Patriarchy is just an additional problem that women have to deal with. 

New American Reality: An Empire beyond Salvation

Click here to access article by Ramzy Baroud from Cyrano's Journal.

Baroud surveys the many hot spots in the world and concludes that the Empire's position in the world is very much on the defensive in spite of their recent "victory" in Ukraine. If he is right, we can expect more foreign wars and more repression at home. But then, who knows what opportunities might open up to improve the lot of the 99 Percent at home? We also might get ideas about liberation.

The state of US foreign policy in the Middle East, but also around the world, cannot be described with any buoyant language. In some instances, as in Syria, Libya, Egypt, the Ukraine, and most recently in Palestine and Israel, too many calamitous scenarios have exposed the fault lines of US foreign policy. The succession of crises is not allowing the US to cut its losses in the Middle East and stage a calculated ‘pivot’ to Asia following its disastrous Iraq war.

US foreign policy is almost entirely crippled.

For the Obama administration, it has been a continuous firefighting mission since George W. Bush left office.

Where is the protest? A reply to Graeber and Lapavitsas

Click here to access article by Jerome Roos from Reflections on a Revolution.

In this article Roos discusses the apparent decline in protests and finds wanting the explanations of two other intellectual activists. Then he proceeds to offer his own explanation.

I think that activists in Europe and the US have previously protested from a view of social-economic change that lies within the framework of acceptable social change actions permitted by the Western capitalist rule. This form of mass participation in protest on the streets has been met time after time with brutal and subversive actions (infiltration of activist groups with informers, spying on their political meetings, use of agent provocateurs, etc.) which have succeeded in discouraging such actions. These responses by capitalist ruling classes are, I think, partly a result of a great concentration of wealth and power: they no longer fear this type of activism.

Also, I think that their system which requires constant growth is running up against the limits of a finite planet. Thus, they can only formulate policies that impose harsh austerity actions that destroy the social fabric that has produced their wealth and power. Such policies require oppression and control of their resisting populations: the use of violent and subversive actions by their police and armies.

Andre Damon and Barry Grey write in their article "Police killings in America" at the World Socialist Web Site: 

The ruling class has nothing to offer a population that faces permanent economic insecurity, declining living standards and growing poverty, hunger and homelessness. It lives in mortal fear of the emergence of mass social opposition to its economic and political system.

Its response—in the US and internationally—is to attack democratic rights, throw off the restrictions on its actions bound up with constitutional and democratic processes, and prepare to meet social opposition by means of mass repression and dictatorship.

The “counterinsurgency” methods of mass violence employed in America’s dirty neocolonial wars abroad—in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya—are being adapted for use at home.

I think that in time most people will reach the conclusion that nothing short of a revolution is required, and to start building revolutionary organizations with the avowed purpose of overthrowing the capitalist organization of society and the rule of capitalists. After this consciousness develops, I think then the first order of business is to construct an organized alternative media.

As Damon and Grey conclude in their article:

The class war has to this point been one-sided. The American working class has not yet responded in a mass way. But that will come, sooner than many think. 

Leaked IPCC climate plan to worsen global warming - ecologists

Click here to access article by Nafeez Ahmed from The Guardian.

Referring to a leaked report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)  to be released next week, the author writes:

Dr Rachel Smolker, co-director of Biofuelwatch, said that the report's embrace of "largely untested" and "very risky" technologies like bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration (BECCS), will "exacerbate" climate change, agricultural problems, water scarcity, soil erosion and energy challenges, "rather than improving them."

We can expect to see capitalist ruling circles to engage in a desperate search for strategies to deal with the threat of climate destabilization while preserving their ability to use relatively cheap fossil fuels. Such an effort can only produce futile and even dangerous ideas (for example, see this).

Capitalists say the darndest things

Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from his blog Systemic Disorder.

It’s no secret that some of the world’s biggest corporations are draining aquifers and reselling tap water at enormous profit. But they want to go further and make paying for water mandatory. Water is simply another “market commodity” in this view — most notoriously propagated by Nestlé S.A. Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe in a six-minute video issued by his company. It’s fair to say that the apparent attempt by Nestlé to project an image of a company soberly grappling with the world’s problems through a stern rationality backfired spectacularly. 

Western-style “Democracy” Unravels in Southeast Asia’s Thailand

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook.

Cartalucci exposes the Empire's most frequently used propaganda theme and regime-change program they refer to as promoting "democracy, and shows how it has been applied in Thailand. It doesn't matter to Empire agents who they back as promoting "democracy"; it doesn't matter that their stooge in Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, is a convicted criminal and wanted by Thai authorities. He still rules in absentia through his sister by holding carefully managed elections.

Despite Thaksin Shinawatra’s demonstrably destructive policies and his autocratic, brutal style of dictatorship – when his overtly criminal actions were ever called into question, he simply held “elections” to give himself a renewed mandate to remain in office. His success at the polls was due to his iron grip on Thailand’s populous, but sorely undeveloped rural northeast region. An array of government subsidies, cheap loans, literal cash handouts, and a Tammany Hall-style political machine ensured not only victory after victory at the polls, but a growing sense of political and legal impunity.

And, of course, elections = "democracy", according to Empire agents. In this article Cartalucci, who refers to this as a "democracy racket", explains how it has failed in Thailand in contrast to so many other Empire applications elsewhere--for example, in nearby Myanmar (see this).

The FIRST REAL Russian Retaliation for US-led Sanctions: Far More Harmful to…

Click here to access article by Ian Welsh from The 4th Media.

The White House and the russophobes in the Senate are livid and are trying to block the transaction because it opens up some very serious and nasty scenarios for the petrodollar.

If Sechin [CEO of Russian oil company Rosneft] decides to sell this Iranian oil for rubles, through a Russian exchange, such move will boost the chances of the “petroruble” and will hurt the petrodollar.

It can be said that the US sanctions have opened a Pandora’s box of troubles for the American currency.

Since the regime-change events in Ukraine we are seeing a heating up of inter-capitalist ruling class rivalries. This article explains some steps Russia and other countries are taking to counter the global hegemonic plays of the US-based Empire. 

This scene reminds me so much of what happened during the 1930s when the economies of most of the capitalist world lay in ruin. The appeal of fascist parties for capitalist elites was widespread across the world to deal with rising labor organizing and opposition. They took over in Germany, but also had very significant influence in France, England, Spain, and the US. The US ruling class under Franklin Roosevelt and their British counterparts adopted a more Keynesian approach to deal with their domestic opposition. The ruling elites of France and most of mainland Europe were so totally divided that they easily succumbed to German invasions. The contest devolved into a contest for world domination by these two camps which ended in the conflagration of WWII.

I think we could very well expect the same result today except for the fact of nuclear weapons. Capitalist love destroying things because they can then invest in reconstruction. However, with nuclear weapons the destruction is far too much and unpredictable. No sane person would contemplate using such weapons. (Let us pray that our masters maintain their sanity.) Therefore, we are seeing these battles waged on the economic front, but we can also expect to see more regime-change attempts from the Empire.

The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want U.S. to intervene

Click here to access article by Kyle Dropp, Joshua D. Kertzer and Thomas Zeitzoff from The Washington Post.

Does it really matter whether Americans can put Ukraine on a map? Previous research would suggest yes: Information, or the absence thereof, can influence Americans’ attitudes about the kind of policies they want their government to carry out and the ability of elites to shape that agenda.

In this article published in a prime ruling class newspaper, I detect a peculiar satisfaction in reporting on the relationship between ignorance and citizen support of US military adventures. Of course, it wasn't really a discovery as the authors seem to suggest. Our ruling class has known this for a long time. That is precisely why they have always engaged in dumbing down Americans through mindless entertainment, propaganda that passes as news reports, and indoctrination that passes as education in schools.

Don't Pray for Venezuela: The Struggle Against Contemporary Fascism

Click here to access article by Chris Gilbert from MRZine.

The author provides an excellent attack on the Popular Front strategy that still lingers in Venezuela because of, what Gilbert argues is, an exaggerated fear of US intervention. The Popular Front strategy did have some (although, I think mistaken) rational basis its promotion by Stalin in the lead-up to WWII: to provide additional time for the Soviet Union to prepare for the inevitable attack from Nazi Germany. However, this strategy is now well past its for-sale-by-date, but yet it still is pursued by many would-be revolutionary leaders or leftists as we have seen in Venezuela.

The Anti-Empire Report #127

Click here to access article by William Blum from his blog.

Blum gives his thoughts about the recent renewal of the Cold War and some related historical material, and observations about the ongoing subversive attacks on Cuba.

Rebuilding the commons through economic democracy

Click here to access article by Gary Engler from the New Commune-ist Manifesto (Canada). 

When commons were common, through tens of thousands of years, people mostly developed technology and systems of usage that respected the land, ocean, river, forest, grassland and creatures that lived there. They did this because it was in their collective self-interest to do so. This was reflected in their religions and how their societies were organized, including the ways people thought of themselves.

Mutual respect, independence, collective responsibility, reciprocity, community and what we would now call a sense of ecology were encouraged because all served a society that held its resources in common. 

Constructing the North Korean Revolution

Click here to access this book review by Gregory Elich of a book entitled Everyday Life in the North Korean Revolution, 1945-1950, by Suzy Kim, posted on MRZine.

...Suzy Kim has filled a major gap in the history of North Korea.  In the West, it has become customary to fixate on the top leadership in historical coverage of the subject.  That approach stems partly from lack of access to North Korean archives, but perhaps more strongly from an inclination to smooth over complexities in order to supply a simplified narrative that is easily digestible and harmonious with the imperatives of Western policy.

Kim has drawn upon North Korean materials captured by the U.S. military during the Korean War, housed at the National Archives II in College Park, Maryland.  These documents have enabled her to provide a unique perspective on the early years of the North Korean revolution.

To argue that there is "a major gap in the history of North Korea" for Western audiences is one of the biggest understatements of the year. Whenever such gaps exist, Empire propagandists see as a splendid opportunity to fill in the gaps with their Empire perspectives. The bigger the gap, the bigger the lies they tell.

Of course, all propaganda contain elements of truth. This is so in order for the lies to be believed. Thus, rare books like this can help us separate out all the lies. 

Another very excellent researcher and author is Prof. Bruce Cumings who has written several outstanding books on Korean history and numerous scholarly articles.

White House Lies to EU about US Gas Supply

Click here to access article by William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook.

The White House and State Department have engaged in brazen lying to EU governments regarding the ability of the US to supply more than enough natural gas to replace Russian gas deliveries. Recent statements by US President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry are so patently false that it betrays an incredible desperation in Washington over the situation in Ukraine versus Moscow. Or it suggests that Washington is so out of touch with any factual reality she simply doesn’t care what she says. Either way, it suggests an unreliable diplomatic partner for the EU. 

That this is a lie, there is no doubt. Gail Tverberg, another specialist in all things energy, in a recent article entitled "The Absurdity of US Natural Gas Exports" has laid out considerable evidence which confirms Engdahl's claim about US officials lying.

Engdahl catches the Empire agents in such a big lie that one has to wonder why they made up such a big fib. However, the place where Obama made his statement might suggest the answer.

After his recent meeting with EU leaders Obama issued the incredible statement that the secret Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that is being secretly negotiated behind closed doors by the major private multinational companies would make it easier for the United States to export gas to Europe and help it reduce its dependency on Russian energy: “Once we have a trade agreement in place, export licenses for projects for liquefied natural gas destined to Europe would be much easier, something that is obviously relevant in today’s geopolitical environment,” Obama stated.

Thus, it seems that the neoliberal project of bringing Europe into the TTIP is a top priority. Also, it appears that Empire policy makers want to promote more European dependency on the US in addition to punishing Russia.

McCutcheon took us back in time, but it might just birth the next Occupy

Click here to access article by Robert B Reich from The Guardian. 

Reich, the former Sec. of Labor under President Clinton, frequently writes for publications expressing a quintessential liberal point of view. He is on the left end of the liberal spectrum in the US because he is a strong advocate of labor rights and civil liberties. Generally, he is most concerned about the growing fact of income inequality in the US and the growing evidence of police-state type measures. 

In this article he expresses concerns about the influence of money in elections which was just made more convenient by a recent Supreme Court decision that prompted his article. As in this article, he has written many articles expressing concern over the rightward drift in US politics. Generally over the past 50 years, the whole political spectrum has moved from the liberal end to the right. He, like other liberals, are mostly concerned about the political stability of the capitalist ruling class given such aggressive attacks on the poor, on civil liberties, and as we see here, on the strong influence of money in the electoral system. 

To understand the US ruling class power structure, it is helpful to acknowledge that there are differences among those supposedly elected to represent Americans, but they are always sponsored by the One Percent.  One must not be confused about party labels because each party has members with varying views on issues. Parties largely exist to provide the appearance of choice, therefore the trappings of "democracy". Although individual political agents do express differences on various issues, their view are always within limits tolerated by the ruling capitalist class. If agents stray too far from these limits, they soon lose their offices--for example, Sen. Frank Church who aggressively sought to investigate and control the activities of the CIA and NSA. I distinguish basically three political positions within this ruling class: 1) neoconservatives, 2) liberals, and 3) old-fashioned conservatives. They all strongly support a capitalist system. (No other political orientation is allowed any influence.)

The first group, the neoconservatives, have now largely taken control of US society. This takeover roughly dates from the election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980. Their outlook tends to be strongly influenced by imperialist policies (spreading the Empire's capitalist domination over as much of the world as possible) has a strong component of Zionist influence, and an aggressive anti-working class/pro-business orientation domestically. They also advocate strong authoritarian policies to control dissent. 

The second group, the liberals, are characterized by a concern for civil liberties, pretend to be concerned about the preservation of social welfare systems and the interests of labor unions, and are more oriented toward the interests of the middle class (managers, professionals, and highly skilled technologists). Generally speaking, the want to preserve some remnants of the social contract. Most liberals only pay lip service to concerns about climate destabilization. This group presently has little influence over government policies. Liberals largely serve the function of providing alternative views which ruling class media publish to provide the appearance of differing points of views in the government. 

The third group, the old-fashioned conservatives, are a vanishing breed of politicos. They are against the imperial adventures of the neoconservatives, they have some concerns about civil liberties and a growing police state, but otherwise they mostly want to promote domestic private enterprise. I would include libertarians such as Ron Paul in this group, but figures such as Pat Buchanan and Paul Craig Roberts best express their politics. 

Addendum, 4-8-2014. The term "libertarian" is a very confusing concept in the US. People such as David Koch identify themselves as libertarian. I think the term has been appropriated by many of the right wing who are, in fact, fascists (they promote the unfettered rule of corporations in a police state). "Libertarian" sounds a lot nicer.

Dear Humanity, Time Is Running Out

Click here to access article by Jon Queally from Common Dreams.

Although under a lot of political pressure, scientists in capitalist countries keep telling the world that humanity faces serious threats from climate destabilization. The means to solve these problems are within humanity's technological abilities, but the political control of capitalist elites prevents any significant implementation--such actions interfere with corporate profits. Now scientists are telling us that time is running out. 

Still, judging by the authoritative US ruling class newspaper, the Washington Post, our masters have their heads stuck in the sand of cold war politics. They want to drill like never before in order to destabilize the Russian economy. (See also this.) They want more production of natural gas domestically to provide more energy to Europe to lessen their dependence on Russian energy. Russia needs to be punished for standing in the way of the capitalist Empire's agenda to control the world.

What is most startling of all, scientists seem to be aware that more than just a reduction in fossil fuel use is required: they recognise that basic changes in the structures of societies are needed! Referring to a report to be released next week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the author writes: 

 ...the report will say, society will not only need to rapidly reduce use of fossil fuels, but also revolutionize the structures of its economies, food systems, and energy grids.

Hersh: Turkey Behind Sarin Attacks In Syria

Click here to access article by Bernhard from his blog Moon of Alabama.

Bernhard provides an excellent summary to the much longer article by Seymour Hersh carried in the London Review of Books. Hersh essentially provides an update on all the Empire's secret machinations of the their direct, and indirect support via Turkey, of the jihadist opposition forces in Syria. The crucial events were the bombing of the US embassy and CIA offices in Bengazi, Libya which brought a halt to direct weapons transfer to Turkey (the "rat line"), and the desperate act of Turkish authorities to instigate the false-flag operation of the gas attack supposedly launched by the Syrian government.

It is always interesting and a challenge to tease out the actual decision-makers in the US government. Notice that Hersh's unnamed, but trusted, sources frequently use the expression "the White House" in reference to decisions made, although occasionally the reference is to Obama. It is important to be aware that the White House is not only the residence of the president, but also contains the powerful National Security Council and the White House staff. Obama functions formally, and probably literally, as chairman of the NSC. 

From my observations over many years, I have concluded that the president's main role, especially for the last few decades, is largely that of a public relations officer for the ruling class's government. It is unclear to me who functions as primary "deciders" within the National Security Council. Notice in one part of the article that the Chief of the White House Staff apparently made a very important decision independently:

In the months before the attacks began, a former senior Defense Department official told me, the DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency] was circulating a daily classified report known as SYRUP on all intelligence related to the Syrian conflict, including material on chemical weapons. But in the spring, distribution of the part of the report concerning chemical weapons was severely curtailed on the orders of Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff. ‘Something was in there that triggered a shit fit by McDonough,’ the former Defense Department official said. ‘One day it was a huge deal, and then, after the March and April sarin attacks’ – he snapped his fingers – ‘it’s no longer there.’ The decision to restrict distribution was made as the joint chiefs ordered intensive contingency planning for a possible ground invasion of Syria whose primary objective would be the elimination of chemical weapons.

And, behind the National Security Council and the While House staff functions the general foreign policy making center of the US, the Council on Foreign Relations.

Afghan Elections for Another Fake Regime

Click here to access article by Eric Margolis from Common Dreams. 

Afghanistan’s national election held this week is a sham. A group of candidates, handpicked by the US, will pretend to compete in an election whose outcome has already been determined – by Washington.

The candidates include US groomed politicians, and drug-dealing warlords from the Tajik and Uzbek north. Chief among them, Rashid Dostam, a major war criminal and principal CIA ally who ordered the massacre of over 2,000 Taliban prisoners.

Margolis focuses only on Afghanistan, but he should make clear that democracy = elections is a prime program method that the Empire uses to legitimatize governments that serve their capitalist interests. I want to make clear that this method applies to the US as well, although the process by which they implement it is a little more sophisticated here in the US and in other advanced capitalist governments.

Looking at the candidates and their backgrounds as described by Margolis, you can see that the Empire will use anybody who is willing to serve the Empire, and then use elections to "certify" them as "democratically elected" and legitimate. Following such "elections" the Empire's media always portray their regimes as democratic which justify all kinds of policies from invading their country to save "democracy", to stationing huge military bases on their land, and to justify giving foreign aid to the regime.

We politically aware activists can view this with cynicism, but it works with the vast majority of American people. Thus, the only way we, and other people, can make progress against this capitalist Empire juggernaut and all ruling class governments is by establishing our own media, and using it to raise the political consciousness of people. There are elements of alternative media all over the place, but they are underfunded, and unorganized. If we are to avoid catastrophic climate destabilization, widespread poverty and misery, wars between contending capitalist regimes, and police states, we must direct our efforts to bring about our own organized and sufficiently funded media. This is our basic task on which all other progressive changes depend.